Committee Oks Lethal Injection Bill

Will Give Prisoners Choice Of Execution

February 15, 1994|By BOB KEMPER Daily Press

RICHMOND — After three years of refusing to consider changing the way inmates on death row are executed, a House committee on Monday approved a bill that would give condemned prisoners the choice of dying by lethal injection or in the electric chair.

The full House will vote on it today.

The bill's patron, Del. Phillip Hamilton, R-Newport News, has been trying since 1991 to create an alternative to the electric chair, which he said is "torturous" and "dehumanizing."

Twenty-five other states allow lethal injection.

The House Courts of Justice Committee, which has routinely defeated the measure in past years, approved it 14-8 Monday.

The key difference was the addition of seven new members to the committee, six of whom voted for lethal injection.

Hamilton has faced opposition on both sides of the death penalty issue. Supporters of the death penalty see no need to make the death less harsh. Opponents of capital punishment claimed he was just trying to make it more palatable to the public.

Hamilton's bill would have no effect on inmates currently on death row.

Gov. George Allen "does support lethal injection as a concept," spokesman Ken Stroupe said. As a delegate, Allen voted for lethal injection.